Following a fourth season that brought a supporting actor win for John Lithgow and a nomination for star Michael C. Hall (Carpenter's former husband), Season 5 focused more on Carpenter's Deborah and her refusal to realize her brother is a serial killer. An Emmy nod this year would be Carpenter's first.

Carpenter carried all of last season's angst about the search for a team of men who murder women – and the vigilante duo killing the killers. She tracked down the duo – Dexter and an avenging victim (Julia Stiles), but decided to let them go without seeing their faces. Her decision narrowly prevented her, yet again, from finding out the truth about Dexter.

The decision to let the pair go, Carpenter says, felt "out of character." But she justified it by remembering that Deb had been abducted herself, and had seen video of the men's crimes.

We all act out of character from time to time," she told TheWrap. "And grow from it, hopefully."

One thing she may not be able to justify much longer? Deb's not figuring out Dex. Carpenter told us that realization is "due" – maybe in the upcoming sixth season, which features rapper Mos Def, Colin Hanks, Edward James Olmos, and a plot involving religion.

Do you feel like your character is the moral center of the show? That's a heavy burden I guess… but I certainly feel like she's the heart of it, and adds a lot of balance and adds a lot of insight into just how dysfunctional Dexter is, considering that they came from the same family.

She certainly holds tight to her morals. She's a cop and feels like she has a great understanding of what's right and wrong, and by honoring that she's honoring the legacy of her father, which seems to matter most to her.

Deb may be the smartest person on the show, yet she can't see what her brother is doing. Do you ever go to the writers and say, "My character is too intelligent to not figure this out?" I have a tool that helps me justify her not knowing and it's worked for me up to this point. I feel like it's due. But I feel like because Dexter is her only connection to her past she doesn’t look too closely. And it's always the wife or the parents with the son living in the basement -- the people who were closest to the person doing the horrible things -- who are in the dark.

There are plenty of distractions going on in that [police] office to keep me focused on something else. I think she has all the pieces but she wouldn’t dare put them together.

Yet. This season I don't know if the tool's going to be enough for me anymore. But we'll see.

He's odd. He's always been odd. He comes from a really difficult situation and I've learned more about that. The fact that he and his brother were trapped in a shipping container watching their mother be killed with a chainsaw. Isn't that enough? Do I have to look at it further and come up with the fact that he's a serial killer, too? That's an excuse you could ride for a long period of time and I willingly let him ride it.

Last season Deb caught Dexter and Julia Stiles' character, Lumen, without seeing who they were, and decided to let them go. Since she released those vigilantes, is it possible she would be okay with Dexter killing people, too? I had a really hard time justifying that moment. And I still have a hard time justifying that moment. Would I be okay with it if I found out Dexter was a serial killer? I don’t know. I'm glad it's not up to me. I feel that that decision is in the writers' capable hands and they will justify it, and it will be the hardest thing I've ever played but I look forward to doing it. Is there room for it? Certainly. My instinct today is she would put her handcuffs on him. But it changes from day to day.

If you caught him, it could have been the end of the story. When you've been that close to catching him, how much longer can the show go on? The writer's room is operating where the best idea wins. Each of them are powerhouses of talent of their own. And what little I'm hearing is as exciting as it's ever been. … You're really getting into the guts of everybody this year.

How do you feel about your Emmy chances? I feel like I've been really lucky in my life. Just being allowed to work. And I have learned an immense amount and I'm incredibly committed to this show and this part.

I have so many people in my life that I would love to thank publicly, but I thank them privately all the time.

I had a really hard time justifying that moment. And I still have a hard time justifying that moment.

Aaagghh, that's awkward. I always hate it when an actor has an issue like that with the writing, especially if it's a good actor on a good show. I'm always a little startled that she's so different from Deb. But I think she's right; it's time for her to find out. I can't wait to see what happens.

She really is so different from Deb. It boggles my mind when people say she's a bad actress, she's improved so much since Season One (though I loved her even back then because she brought the lols and I loved her foul mouth).

religion? it better not be ANYTHING to do with the third book. those books are terrible and the third book is about SPOILER dexter's dark passenger being a mayan god possessing him to kill and dex teaching cody and astor how to be serial killers. literally one of the worst things i've ever read so I don' feel bad if that spoiler warning wasn't sufficient.

Oh god I know. It was actually awful. I'm so thankful he completely dropped it in the next book. What's worse is- the book was SOOOOOO good before it got to that point. "The Watcher" kept me in such suspense, god, he RUINED it.

I read the first book and started the second when the series first came out but the show was so much better that I just stopped reading them. I'm glad I did with what you said. A mayan god? WTF was Jeff Lindsay thinking?

I get what she's saying here but I find it kind of funny, "she would put her cuffs on him" haha, knowing they're going through a divorce just makes it seem funny. But I'm very excited for this next season. Tbh it doesn't sound like she was too happy with the last season, and that she has a lot of the same problems with it that the fanbase did. So I'm glad to hear that. I was worried that they really thought it was believable Deb would let someone go.